Garbology by Edward Humes Ch.12 Review

    We have not failed to save our Planet just yet. There if still hope for us to step up and take responsability for correcting our wrongs. In this chapter Humes writes about the Johnson family. The Johnson family is a family that has made it there mission to like a waste free life. But they were not always aware of how to like waste free as they were just like us once. Blinded by ads and media to shop and not knowing about the overflow of trash issue we face. It wasn't until they moved to another home that they saw how much trash they consume and items they don't need or want anymore. I know if i were to move out of my apartment I would feel the same. Even when it comes to spring cleaning, that can make you think twice about shopping. So now the Johnson's do whatever they can to reduce waste, from taking glass jars to put food in from farmers markets to using biodegradable tooth brushes from Australia. The Johnson's looks so strange because most of it is empty looking do to the lack of junk they have. Despite the Johnson's lifestyle many people were nasty to them thinking that the Johnson's thought they were perfect when that wasn't the case what so ever. Instead of us hating on people who are trying to save our world, we should look up to them and use them as an example. For they can make our future possible.

Garbology by Edward Humes Ch.11 Review

  In chapter 11 of Humes book we take a look at a green city. But, is it really all that green? The city is Portland Organ. Humes writes how in the city of Portland they recycle a lot, have many more bike lanes than California, and are coming up with new ways of eliminating trash. like by steaming it down instead of burning it. Overall Portland does what most of us should be doing which is finding better ways of doing things.However one thing that Portland fails to do is reduce how much they consume. So even though they recycle and have green resources, they manage to still contribute to what Humes calls "the 102 ton legacy". Portland is so close to truly leading the way to more green life style, they just need to control their spending habits. "They make a lot of it in Portland-a shade more trash even than the Average American's 7.1 pounds a day, and a half pound more than the average Oregonian."(249)

Garbology by Edward Humes Ch.10 review

  In chapter 10 of Garbology Humes brings up a man named Andy Keller. Andy Keller is the founder of Chico bags. Chico bags are reusable bags that you can use when you go to the grocery store instead of plastic. This is an amazing product that is actually good for the Earth. The cool thing is that Keller got his inspiration to develop the bag after a visit to a land fill by his home. Keller noticed that there was a lot of Plastic bags in the landfill so he wanted to reduce the plastic waste in landfills. Whats cool about what Keller developed is that he saw something negative happening to our planet, and he stepped up to take action. If Keller can make a difference, then so can we. Even if it is by just using Chico bags. What was annoying about this chapter was how plastic bag companies were suing Keller for reducing plastic bag sells. All Keller did was bring to attention the issue that is the "Bag Monster", where he wore a full body suit of plastic bags. Its just so sick that their are people out there that care more about money than life. Besides what good is money if there is no world left to enjoy it with. Chico bags are the future, so lets use them and make a change for the better.

Response to "The Incinerator as Eye candy" article

I honestly wouldn't really mind if one of these state of the art plants was located by my home. As long as it's not hurting my family and community I'm fine with it. Besides all it does is provide heat and hot water to the buildings. Plus the buildings look pretty cool and futuristic.

Garbology Ch.9 Review

    I have to say that chapter 9 has been one of my favorite chapters to read. Its was cool to read how artist can make a difference in the world wide trash epidemic. In this chapter is discussed how many artist have gone to landfills to gather materials to create beautiful pieces of art. That's an amazing idea of how to make trash useful and beautiful. When I was a little boy I remember haw my father would go out into the town dump to find things we can us and that were in good condition. Which after reading Garbology its highly likely that most things in dumps and landfills are useful. One day my father came back with a CD player for me that was water proof and some toys like old Hotweels. I was so happy even though the things I got were not new. Then that got me thinking how a child doesn't need to be given brand new toys to be happy. They can be happy with recycled things just as much. That goes to tell you that things in landfills and dumps are not necessary trash. But things people have chosen to abandon whether its a toy car or pieces of beauty scattered threw out a dirty field. Landfills are a true wonderland that just need the right person with a vision to discover it's priceless values.

Garbology Ch.8 Review

 In chapter 8, Humes focuses on "The Garbage Project" and it's founder Bill Rathje. Before reading this chapter, I have never heard of the Garbage Project. So to clarify, the Garbage Project is a group of people who focus and study trash. I's amazing what they can discover by simply just noticing what types of garbage they find in landfills and everywhere else. And if you were wondering what in the world does Garbology mean we finally get an answer for that in this chapter. "The study of a community or culture by analyzing it's waste."(168) And that exactly what Bill Rathje is. "The worlds first garbologist".(159) They say ones trash can say a lot about a person's life. Garbology has proven this to indeed be true. As the garbologists team studied garbage they found that it can be linked to year this piece of trash was most common. A perfect example is how two years after AIDS broke out infecting many, the amount of condoms increased thus more people where practicing safe sex.
  What was very shocking to me is the amount of food we waste. The garbage Project found that there is a lot of food we just throw away. Some haven't even been opened. This is very true as I myself have trough away unpackaged or still good food simply because it might have expired or doesn't look appealing any more. And keep in mind Costco and all the "deals" it offers. Do you really think anyone could finish all those big portions of food. Just the other day my mother was trying to buy some muffins but the cashier told her she had to get another batch as well because that's the way they sale them. We didn't even eat all those muffins. Schools are another reason so much food gets thrown away daily. Students often waste food and throw it away not thinking about how much waste they are producing. Then again this is the schools fault. In my old High School they would make use take everything or else we would have to pay. I remember arguing with the lunch lady about me not wanting to take milk. I ended up taking the milk as usual so I wouldn't have to pay and as soon as I stepped out of the lunch line I would through my milk in the trash. I wish I would have known about the Garbage Project while still in high school.

Garbology Ch.7 Review

   In this chapter of Garbology Humes writes about a study that was made in Seattle 2009 by MIT scientists and Bruce Sterling. The study asked volunteers to put a tracking devise on a piece of trash of there choice like a Coffee cup or a an old shoe; Which is why the name of the chapter is titled "The Trash Trackers". What I liked about this study was the idea of knowing exactly where our trash goes and ends up at. "Innate intelligence would, in sterling's vision, allow us to direct all objects-specifically the objects we throw away-to the best and most efficient path for refuse, repurposing or recycling"(146). It's cool to think that knowing where our garbage goes can open the window to truly informing society what we need to do and about the importance of recycling in order to clean up our world.
    The chapter also mentions that the scientist chose to conduct the experiment in Seattle because they are a "Green city, 50% of the people there recycle and the average U.S city recycles about 30%"(148). At the end of the study the volunteers were called back to see where there garbage ended up at. I was surprised to see that most of there trash ended up in other states than the one that they threw it away in. In some cases even further or just lost track as the devise attached to it must have been removed somehow. This would a good experiment for all of us to do in order to be aware of where exactly our trash goes and how it ends up in oceans, streets, and how it trashes our overall planet.

Object description

        Beautiful silky smooth locks of hair sway in the fall breeze. Those perfectly sculpted curves can make any women jealous with an envious force. She is the reason women work so hard to gain that perfect beach body. The way her worn out baby blue sky metallic clothing hugs her perky breast and toned legs can make most men skip a heartbeat. Her beauty and style influence’s people to become artificial. The way her ocean blue eyes look into your soul may scare you at first, but soon you will see how they can charm you. As I walk pass by her I can smell her brand new car smell that you get when you open something new. That smell that can sneak a little smile on your face and bring back good memories. When she walks all you can hear is giggles and the click clack of her hot pink heals. She has the power to slap a smile on any girls face when they meet her for the first time. However, boys seem to shy away from her and care more about their fancy sports cars. For the perfect women’s destiny is to one day be left alone to rule a landfill and to destroy society and the environment. The queen of plastic beach is here.

Response to Garbology Ch. 6

   In chapter 6 of Garbology Humes goes into more detail on how our use of plastic is truly effecting not only our land but our oceans as well. It's no secret that our oceans are trash free, but did you know how the plastic is harming sea life that we later consume? the question that Humes has us ask our selves in this chapter is if we really know what we are eating when it comes to seafood. What I found interesting was how you can see all the plastic inside a jelly fish's body that consumed tiny pieces of plastic. It made me wonder about the fish that don't have transparent bodies as jelly fish do. "Plastic can take chemicals from the water, but then little fish eat that plastic, and a chain reaction called bio-magnification begins"(132). What also caught my attention was how 100 years ago there was no plastic in our oceans at all. But now it seems we use plastic for everything and we are throwing tons of it away daily so some of that plastic is bound to end up in the ocean. If you think about it plastic isn't very healthy to begin with. Its all made up of chemicals but yet we store our food in it and drink from it. We should really consider switching to glass.

Response to articles about trash in our oceans

After reading an article on Inhabitat.com about the how garbage effects our ocean I felt like never eating fish again. I had no idea that fish eat the plastic that gets thrown into the ocean and that this plastic contain chemicals we later consume after eating the toxic fish. This really got me thinking about why seafood is high in mercury. Because most likely the sea life have mercury inside them is because of the trash they eat. Surely fish do not contain mercury naturally.
However after reading the article about a 19 year old that developed a way to clean-up the oceans I felt a lot better. Its really amazing to see how this 19 year old put his time and hard work in developing a system that pulls plastic out of our oceans. In a way I felt inspired knowing that a 19 year old like me can make a difference in this world. Sure I'm not a genius that can develop ways to clean the oceans, but I can use my passion for acting and film to spread awareness about what plastic particles are doing to our fish and how it puts our health at risk.

Garbology by Edward Humes Ch.5 review

Do any of you own an acne wash or cleanser with those tiny colorful beads inside? Because I do, and I was never really sure what they were. I knew what they did to my face, but I did not know what it does to our earth. Humes branches out to the issue of how garbage is affecting our ocean in this chapter. The ocean is in a way a lot like our trash cans. Once trash goes inside them, the trash seems to "magically" disappear (as we like to say in class). But the reality is that it doesn't disappear; in fact it will reappear somewhere else. Like in the shores of our beaches. Have you been to Santa Monica beach lately? There's trash all over the shore there. From chip bags to baby dippers, I have seen it all in Santa Monica beach.
 Humes discussed how plastic is one of the main objects that pollute our oceans. like the little tiny beads in our face wash. I was unaware that what I scrub my face with was indeed plastic beads. I always thought that those beads were made of an acne medicine or something, and that they would eventually dissolve. But in fact, these tiny beads are what pollute or oceans the most. You see we use these beads to melt them down into new plastic products like toothbrushes or Barbie dolls. And we have these beads shipped all over the place to make our products, so of course millions of those beads are surly to fall into our oceans for marine life to consume by mistake.
What shocked me the most was how those plastic beads contain plastic particles that can be toxic. So when fish eat these particles, we eat the fish, then we contain the plastic particles. This reminds me of Justine Parkin's video about garbage and how women's breast milk contains the most toxins. And after reading this chapter, it's no wonder why. we have to reduce our use of plastic, it's a must. We can come up with better ways to make our products.

Responce to Garbage video and article

 So maybe we really need to stop shopping so much. I was so focused on the garbage overflow situation that I completely forgot about issues that are caused by creating the things we buy that later contributes to garbage. What I related to a lot in the Video, is how factors make things to last for a little while. I have gone threw so many IPods and cells phones because they just stopped working and didn't last so I would go buy a new one. Society needs to step up and do something about all the damage we are doing to our world. We need to stop listening to "the Golden arrow" we follow so much. the arrow that brain washes us to spend on things we don't need to simply fit in. Because the reality is that if we stop spending so much, we can stop destroying our forest and oceans. In order to create all our goods we have to destroy our land to make it. And we only have one world, we cant afford to kill it. We have to work together to put an end to our world wide epidemics.

Garbology by Edward Humes ch. 4 review

 Finally after reading chapter 4 of Garbology, Humes discuses at least one solution for the garbage crisis. He begins by bringing up David Steiner "CEO of the world's largest trash company"(83). And this man is all about the money, but what was interesting to me is how he said that land fills are the solution. Then I thought "how can they be the solution? don't we want to put an end to them?" however Humes mentioned how long ago in the 70's they wanted to solve the crisis using landfills as well. By using the trash from the landfills to make new materials thus making money as well. But they didn't end up going threw with the idea because they didn't know how it would play out. "landfilling was comparatively cheap and easy, while switching to the close-the-loop system the EPA recommended so long ago would be risky and difficult, and involve unkown conversion costs"(86). Of course we would use the easy way than make a difference. Now this whole idea really got me thinking how its not to late for our world, because in reality not many of us can agree that a solution would be to buy less. America is addicted to shopping. So the next solution can be (as Humes mentions) To use the trash as fuel for cars, or energy to power cities, and yes even renewing old materials. We have the technology and scientist today to figure this out.

University crisis

The third week of a new school is finally over. And I still find myself adjusting to the University. It's been a little tough, but I have already made up my mind that I will be a Cal State University Northridge graduate. I declare my commitment to the work assigned to be, and I declare to face whatever obsticals come my way that keep me from crossing that stage. Even that math 93 test that I scored a 7% out of 100%. I will not ignore my struggles, I will face them before they shatter my goal of majoring in film. The very thought of letting my disadvantages getting the best of not only me, but my life, sickens me. I know I often tell my self "why am I taking math? I want to be an actor" or "this class is a waste of my time, I thought college was about studying what I want a career in"? But now I know that in order to get to that point, I must pass all the general education classes. Its not going to be easy, but I paying for this education and I'm going to make the best of it. I control my future; Besides, pain is only temporary.

Interview with Humes

   After reading the Terry Gross interview with Edward Humes I felt that a lot of my questions about the novel have been answered. For example, I never truly grasp the whole Methane gas concept that I would read over and over again in the novel. And after reading this interview I understood that the gas is created by the trash in the landfills as it decompose.What I also liked about this interview is that the interviewer in a sense was us the audience as he asked a variety of questions I found myself asking as I was reading threw the novel.
    Humes didn't just talk about his novel in this interview as if it was just a book. The way he explained himself to Terry Gross and to the listeners was more meaningful and insightful than if he were to explain a book about vampires for example. His reason for writing this book was to educate us and to make us think about the choices we make in our life. This is a nonfiction book after all, therefore the issues mentioned in the novel are very real and are in need of action. As you read on in the interview you can almost hear the passion and dedication to make a difference in the world that Humes has and hopes to spark into us.

Garbology by Edward Humes Ch.3 Review

      In Chapter 3 of Garbology, Humes illustrates to us the source of the issue that is overflow of trash in the world. And once again he brings to attention as to what are needs and what are wants and how this contributes to the overflow of garbage. Its no secrete that T.V is the main contribution that programs us to spend more on "needs" thus adding more trash to landfills. So why do we continue to spend on stuff that is not a necessity? Because we are persuaded to believe that all this stuff is a necessity, from the latest phone to the latest fashions. They are believed to be part of the "American Dream". "Persuading people to throw away perfectly good things in order to buy replacements promoted as bigger, bolder, and better"(64). People want more and more, and learning how to control our wants is a start to fix the trash situation. Furthermore, Humes gives us a little history lesson again, something I like to call Trash 101. He writes about how plastic invaded landfills and how the plastic found in landfills in the 60's was lower than today. What shocked  me was the fact that around the 50's and 60's there was people (scavengers) that would clean out peoples trash and use whatever they found in there to survive. However there was no need for these scavengers soon after because Garbage trucks would soon be invented, thus the growth of the land fill.

Garbology by Edward Humes Ch.2 review

   In Chapter two of Humes writings he takes us back in time to New York city in the 1890's. Here he shares with us how the people of this time period  handled the trash situation. Honestly I feel its no different that how we do it today, only that back then they used pigs to eat there trash and today we use garbage trucks to eat our trash. He also mentions the different methods that people throughout the years came up with to dispose of trash and failed as proper solutions. Some of these methods we still use today, like burning trash, burying trash, even building more landfills. However as Humes says about landfills they eventually get filled up. The thing that surprised me about the landfills in this chapter is the gas that they produce can explode. I would have never thought that working in a landfill could be deadly.

Garbology by Edward Humes Ch.1 review

   Going into reading this novel I really didn't know what to expect. I knew that it was about trash and where it goes, however I had no idea of what it is really doing not only to our society but to our world as well. This might sound a little silly but I always thought that trash burns in landfills and gets melted down into nothing and that this is how the trash situation is fixed. Then again the only reason I believed this to be true was after watching Toy Story 3. Don't get me wrong, trash does get burned in landfills, however it's not a solution to the overflow of trash. What Humes mentions in his writing has just overall shocked me, I didn't know what to make of it. Like how he wrote about the U.S bringing in goods from China that will later contribute to garbage in the landfills; I never looked at it that way before. He also mentions Puente hills landfill, "the largest active municipal dump in the country"(20); I have never herd of this dump before. Its time for us to know what is happening in our world and to see what we can do to save our world from this trash epidemic.

Thinking

Thinking about what to write for Garbology... Well that shouldn't be a problem, there so much to write about. I man who knew that trash could not only kill us but me! I mean our planet as well.
Well I better get brain storming. :0

Lost!

I have no idea how to link this blog to my CSUN email! I cant believe it, I bet my five year old sis could function this computer stuff more than I can. Haha.

New Blogger!

Hey what's up Google, well yup this is my first blog for my English class.